[tmaly]

I had a few books growing up that I came across that I really enjoyed.

Getting Started with Electronics was a Radio Shack book I owned that I used to learn the basics of circuits.

Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman was a book I came across back in high school that opened my eyes more to self teaching / learning and curiosity.

Later on in college I came across How to Solve it by Polya that opened my eyes up to ways to approach problem solving.

I also stumbled on Thinking as a Science by Henry Hazlitt which had a great approach to learning something new.

[hexagonc]

Getting Started with Electronics -- wow! I think I read that one as a kid, as well. I grew up in the eighties so Radio Shack was still (I think) a good place to buy electronic components and equipment. I remember the electronics kits and educational books that they had. A lot of the Radio Shack electronics books were printed on graph paper and looked like they were taken directly from an engineer's lab notes, informal font style and all. As a kid, I remember being bemused by this style since I had not seen it used anywhere else.

[tmaly]

I still have quite a few of those smaller books printed on the graph paper. I had a lot more fun building circuits compared to seeing kids today stuck on mobile phone.

[hexagonc]

It's just so sad. I like gadgets as much as anyone and consider myself a technology enthusiast, but there's got to be a way to engage kids on smartphones other than games. One of my on-again-off-again side projects has been to create an Android app that allows kids to create their own simple programs and games for their smartphones without needing a computer.